Nikolai Semenovich Leskov can be safely called the genius of that time. He is one of the few writers who could feel the people. This extraordinary personality had a passion not only for Russian literature, but also for Ukrainian and English culture.
1. Only Nikolai Semenovich Leskov graduated from the 2nd grade of the gymnasium.
2. In the Court of Justice, the writer began to work as an ordinary clerk on the initiative of his dad.
3. After the death of his father, Leskov was able to grow up in the judicial chamber to the deputy head of the court.
4. Only thanks to the Schcott and Wilkens company did Nikolai Semenovich Leskov become a writer.
5. Leskov was constantly interested in the life of the Russian people.
6. Leskov had to study the way of life of the Old Believers, and he was most carried away by their mystery and mysticism.
- Gorky was delighted with Leskov's talent and even compared him with Turgenev and Gogol.
8. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov always remained on the side of vegetarianism, because compassion for animals was stronger than the desire to eat meat.
9. The most famous work of this writer is "Lefty".
10. Nikolai Leskov received a good spiritual education because his grandfather was a priest.
11. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov never denied his belonging to the clergy.
12. The first wife of Leskov, whose name was Olga Vasilievna Smirnova, went crazy.
13. Until the death of his first wife, Leskov visited her in a psychiatric clinic.
14. Before dying, the writer was able to release a collection of works.
15. Leskov's father died of cholera in 1848.
16. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov began to print his works at the age of 26.
17. Leskov had several fictitious pseudonyms.
18. The political future of the writer was predetermined through the novel Nowhere.
19. The only work of Leskov, which did not use writer's editing - "The Sealed Angel".
20. After studying, Leskov had to live in Kyiv, where he became a volunteer of the Faculty of Humanities.
22. Leskov was a passionate collector. Unique paintings, books and watches are all his rich collections.
23. One of the first this writer made a proposal to create a book of recipes for vegetarians.
24. Leskov's writing activity began with journalism.
25. Since the 1860s, Nikolai Semenovich Leskov began to write about religion.
26. Leskov had a son from his common-law wife named Andrey.
27. The writer's death occurred in 1895 from an asthma attack, which exhausted him for 5 whole years of his life.
28. Leo Tolstoy called Leskov "the most Russian of writers."
29. Critics accused Nikolai Semenovich Leskov of distorting his native Russian language.
30. Ten years of his own life, Nikolai Semenovich Leskov gave to the service of the state.
31. Leskov never looked for higher values in people.
32. Many of the heroes of this writer had their own oddities.
33. The problem with alcohol, which was observed among the Russian people, Leskov found in many drinking establishments. He believed that this is how the state earns on a person.
34. The publicistic activity of Nikolai Semenovich Leskov is connected primarily with the subject of fires.
36. At the end of Leskov's life, not a single work of his was published in the author's version.
37. In 1985, an asteroid was named after Nikolai Semenovich Leskov.
38. Leskov managed to get his first education in a wealthy maternal family.
39. Uncle Leskova was a professor of medicine.
40. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was not the only child in the family. He had 4 brothers and sisters.
41. The writer was buried at the St. Petersburg cemetery.
42. The childhood and youth of Nikolai Semenovich passed in the family estate.
43. The child from Leskov's first marriage died when he was not even a year old.
44. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov, while working in the newspaper, was able to visit European countries such as: France, Czech Republic and Poland.
45. A good friend of Leskov was Leo Tolstoy.
46. Leskov's father served as an investigator in the Criminal Chamber, and his mother was from a poor family.
47. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was engaged in writing not only novels and short stories, but also plays.
48. Leskov had such a disease as angina pectoris.
49. The most serious activity of this writer began precisely in St. Petersburg in 1860.
50. In total, Leskov's women gave birth to 3 children.
51. On Furshtadskaya Street there was a house where Leskov spent last years own life.
52. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was quite temperamental and active.
53. During his studies, Leskov had a lot of conflicts with teachers and because of this, he subsequently abandoned his studies altogether.
54. For three years of his life, Leskov had to travel around Russia.
55. The last story of this writer is considered to be "Hare remise".
56. Leskov was discouraged from entering into his first marriage by his relatives.
57. In 1867, the Alexandrinsky Theater staged Leskov's play with the title "The Spender". This drama about merchant life once again gave criticism towards the writer.
58. Very often the writer was engaged in the processing of old memoirs and manuscripts.
59. The influence of Leo Tolstoy affected the attitude towards the church on the part of Leskov.
60. The first Russian vegetarian character was created by Nikolai Semenovich Leskov.
61. Tolstoy called Leskov "the writer of the future."
62. Maria Alexandrovna, who was considered the empress of that time, after reading Leskov’s Cathedral, began to promote him to state property officials.
63. Leskov and Veselitskaya had unrequited love.
64. At the beginning of 1862, Leskov became a regular contributor to the Severnaya Pchela newspaper. There he published his editorials.
65. Because of the criticism presented to Nikolai Semenovich Leskov, he was not going to correct himself.
66. This writer considered an important element of literary creativity precisely speech characteristics characters and the individualization of their language.
67. Over the years, Andrei Leskov created a biography of his father.
68. In the Oryol region there is a house-museum for Leskov.
69. Nikolai Semenovich Leskov was a slanderous person.
70. Leskov's novel "Devil's Dolls" was written in the style of Voltaire.
Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov. Born February 4 (February 16), 1831, the village of Gorohovo, Oryol district, Oryol province - died February 21 (March 5), 1895, St. Petersburg. Russian writer.
Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov was born on February 4, 1831 in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol district (now the village of Staroe Gorokhovo, Sverdlovsk district, Oryol region).
Leskov's father, Semyon Dmitrievich Leskov (1789-1848), came from a spiritual milieu. Having broken with the spiritual environment, he entered the service of the Oryol Criminal Chamber, where he rose to the ranks that gave the right to hereditary nobility, and, according to contemporaries, gained a reputation as a shrewd investigator, able to unravel complex cases.
Mother, Maria Petrovna Leskova (nee Alferyeva) (1813-1886) was the daughter of an impoverished Moscow nobleman. One of her sisters was married to a wealthy Oryol landowner, the other to a wealthy Englishman.
Younger brother, Alexei, (1837-1909) became a doctor, had a doctorate in medical sciences.
Early childhood N. S. Leskova took place in Orel. After 1839, when his father left the service (due to a quarrel with his superiors, which, according to Leskov, incurred the wrath of the governor), the family - his wife, three sons and two daughters - moved to the village of Panino (Panin Khutor) not far from the city Chrome. Here, as the future writer recalled, his knowledge of the people began.
In August 1841, at the age of ten, Leskov entered the first grade of the Oryol provincial gymnasium, where he studied poorly: five years later he received a certificate of completion of only two classes.
In June 1847, Leskov joined the Orel Criminal Chamber of the Criminal Court, where his father worked, as a clerk of the 2nd category. After the death of his father from cholera (in 1848), Nikolai Semyonovich received another promotion, becoming assistant clerk of the Oryol Chamber of the Criminal Court, and in December 1849, at his own request, he was transferred to the staff of the Kiev Treasury Chamber. He moved to Kyiv, where he lived with his uncle S.P. Alferyev.
In Kyiv (in 1850-1857) Leskov attended lectures at the university as a volunteer, studied Polish language, became interested in icon painting, took part in a religious and philosophical student circle, communicated with pilgrims, Old Believers, sectarians.
In 1857, Leskov retired from the service and began working in the company of his aunt's husband A. Ya. Shkott (Scott) "Shkott and Wilkens". In the enterprise, which, in his words, tried to "exploit everything for which the region presented any conveniences," Leskov acquired a huge practical experience and knowledge in numerous fields of industry and agriculture. At the same time, on the business of the company, Leskov constantly went on “travels around Russia”, which also contributed to his acquaintance with the language and life of different regions of the country.
During this period (until 1860) he lived with his family in the village of Nikolo-Raysky, Gorodishchensky district, Penza province and in Penza. Here he took up the pen for the first time.
In 1859, when a wave of "drinking riots" swept through the Penza province, as well as throughout Russia, Nikolai Semyonovich wrote "Essays on the distillery industry (Penza province)", published in Otechestvennye Zapiski. This work is not only about distillery production, but also about agriculture, which, according to him, in the province is “far from being in a flourishing state”, and peasant cattle breeding is “in complete decline”.
Some time later, however, the trading house ceased to exist, and Leskov returned to Kyiv in the summer of 1860, where he took up journalism and literary activities. Six months later, he moved to St. Petersburg, staying at.
Leskov began to publish relatively late - at the twenty-sixth year of his life, placing several notes in the newspaper "St. working class”, a few notes about doctors) and “Index economic”.
Leskov's articles, which denounced the corruption of police doctors, led to a conflict with his colleagues: as a result of a provocation organized by them, Leskov, who conducted the official investigation, was accused of bribery and was forced to leave the service.
At the beginning of his literary career, N. S. Leskov collaborated with many St. Petersburg newspapers and magazines, most of all published in Otechestvennye Zapiski (where he was patronized by a familiar Oryol publicist S. S. Gromeko), in Russian Speech and Northern Bee .
In the "Notes of the Fatherland" were printed "Essays on the distillery industry (Penza province)", which Leskov himself called his first work), which are considered his first major publication.
Aliases of Nikolai Leskov: At first creative activity Leskov wrote under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. The pseudonymous signature "Stebnitsky" first appeared on March 25, 1862 under the first fictional work - "Extinguished Case" (later "Drought"). She held out until August 14, 1869. At times, the signatures “M. C", "C", and, finally, in 1872 "L. S", "P. Leskov-Stebnitsky" and "M. Leskov-Stebnitsky. Among other conditional signatures and pseudonyms used by Leskov, the following are known: “Freishits”, “V. Peresvetov”, “Nikolai Ponukalov”, “Nikolai Gorokhov”, “Someone”, “Dm. M-ev”, “N.”, “Member of the Society”, “Psalm Reader”, “Priest. P. Kastorsky”, “Divyank”, “M. P., B. Protozanov”, “Nikolai-ov”, “N. L., N. L.--v”, “Lover of antiquities”, “Traveler”, “Lover of watches”, “N. L., L.
From the beginning of 1862, N. S. Leskov became a permanent contributor to the Severnaya Pchela newspaper, where he began to write editorials and essays, often on everyday, ethnographic topics, but also critical articles directed, in particular, against the “vulgar materialism" and nihilism. His work was highly appreciated on the pages of the then Sovremennik.
The writing career of N. S. Leskov began in 1863, his first stories were published "The life of a woman" And "Musk Ox"(1863-1864). At the same time, the novel began to be published in the Library for Reading magazine. "Nowhere"(1864). “This novel bears all the signs of my haste and ineptitude,” the writer himself later admitted.
Nowhere, which satirically depicted the life of a nihilistic commune, which was opposed by the industriousness of the Russian people and Christian family values, caused displeasure of the radicals. It was noted that most of the “nihilists” depicted by Leskov had recognizable prototypes (the writer V. A. Sleptsov was guessed in the image of the head of the Beloyartsevo commune).
It was this first novel - politically a radical debut - for many years that predetermined Leskov's special place in the literary community, which, for the most part, was inclined to attribute to him "reactionary", anti-democratic views. The leftist press actively spread rumors that the novel was written "on order" of the Third Section. This "heinous slander", according to the writer, spoiled his entire creative life, depriving him of the opportunity to publish in popular magazines for many years. This predetermined his rapprochement with M. N. Katkov, the publisher of Russkiy Vestnik.
In 1863, the story "The Life of a Woman" (1863) was published in the Library for Reading magazine. During the life of the writer, the work was not reprinted and then came out only in 1924 in a modified form under the title “Cupid in paws. A Peasant Romance (Vremya publishing house, edited by P. V. Bykov).
In the same years, Leskov's works were published, "Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district» (1864), "Warrior"(1866) - stories, mostly of a tragic sound, in which the author brought out bright female images different estates. Almost ignored by modern critics, they subsequently received the highest marks from specialists. It was in the first stories that Leskov's individual humor manifested itself, for the first time it began to take shape. unique style, a kind of tale, the founder of which - along with Gogol - he later began to be considered.
Elements of the famous Leskov literary style is in the story "Kotin Doilets and Platonida"(1867). Around this time, N. S. Leskov also made his debut as a playwright.
In 1867, the Alexandrinsky Theater staged his play "Waster", a drama from merchant life, after which Leskov was once again accused by critics of "pessimism and antisocial tendencies."
Of Leskov's other major works of the 1860s, critics noted the story "Bypassed"(1865), which polemicized with the novel What Is to Be Done?, and "Islanders"(1866), moralistic story about the Germans living on Vasilyevsky Island.
In 1870, N. S. Leskov published a novel "On knives", in which he continued to maliciously ridicule the nihilists, representatives of the emerging in those years in Russia revolutionary movement, in the view of the writer fused with criminality. Leskov himself was dissatisfied with the novel, subsequently calling it his worst work.
Some contemporaries (in particular,) noted the intricacies of the adventurous plot of the novel, the tension and implausibility of the events described in it. After that, to the genre of the novel in pure form N. S. Leskov never returned.
The novel "On the Knives" was a turning point in the writer's work. The main characters of Leskov's works were representatives of the Russian clergy, partly the local nobility. Scattered passages and essays began to gradually take shape in a large novel, which eventually received the title "Cathedrals" and published in 1872 in the Russian Bulletin.
Simultaneously with the novel, two “chronicles” were written, consonant in theme and mood with the main work: “Old Years in the Village of Plodomasovo” (1869) and “The Seedy Family” (full title: “The Seedy Family. Family Chronicle of the Princes Protazanovs. From the Notes of Princess V. D. P., 1873). According to one of the critics, the heroines of both chronicles are "examples of persistent virtue, calm dignity, high courage, reasonable philanthropy."
One of the most vivid images in the gallery of Leskovsky "righteous" became Levsha ( "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea", 1881). Subsequently, critics noted here, on the one hand, the virtuosity of the embodiment of Leskovsky's "tale", saturated with wordplay and original neologisms (often with mocking, satirical overtones), on the other hand, the multi-layered narrative, the presence of two points of view: "where the narrator constantly holds the same views, and the author inclines the reader to completely different, often opposite.
In 1872, the story of N. S. Leskov was written, and a year later published "The Sealed Angel", telling about a miracle that led the schismatic community to unity with Orthodoxy. In the work, where there are echoes of ancient Russian "journeys" and legends about miraculous icons and subsequently recognized as one of the best things of the writer, Lesk's "skaz" received the most powerful and expressive incarnation. “The Sealed Angel” turned out to be practically the only work of the writer that did not undergo editorial revision of the “Russian Messenger”, because, as the writer noted, “passed behind their lack of time in the shadows.”
The story was published in the same year. "The Enchanted Wanderer", a work of free forms that did not have a complete plot, built on the interweaving of disparate storylines. Leskov believed that such a genre should replace what was considered traditional modern novel. Subsequently, it was noted that the image of the hero Ivan Flyagin resembles the epic Ilya Muromets and symbolizes "the physical and moral stamina of the Russian people in the midst of the suffering that falls to their lot." Despite the fact that The Enchanted Wanderer criticized the dishonesty of the authorities, the story was a success in official spheres and even at court.
If until then Leskov's works were edited, then this was simply rejected, and the writer had to publish it in different issues of the newspaper. Not only Katkov, but also "leftist" critics took the story with hostility.
After the break with Katkov, the writer's financial situation worsened. In January 1874, N. S. Leskov was appointed a member of a special department of the Scientific Committee of the Ministry of Public Education for the review of books published for the people, with a very modest salary of 1000 rubles a year. Leskov's duties included reviewing books to see if they could be sent to libraries and reading rooms. In 1875 he went abroad for a short time without stopping his literary work.
In the 1890s, Leskov became even more sharply publicistic in his work than before: his stories and novels in the last years of his life were sharply satirical.
Printing in the journal "Russian Thought" of the novel "Damn Dolls", the prototypes of the two main characters of which were Nicholas I and the artist K. Bryullov, was suspended by censorship. Leskov could not publish the story "Hare Remise" - either in "Russian Thought" or in "Bulletin of Europe": it was published only after 1917. Not a single major later work of the writer (including the novels The Falcon Flight and The Invisible Trail) was published in full: the chapters rejected by the censorship were published after the revolution.
Nikolai Semenovich Leskov died on March 5 (old style - February 21), 1895 in St. Petersburg from another attack of asthma, which tormented him for the last five years of his life. Nikolai Leskov was buried at the Volkovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg.
Shortly before his death, in 1889-1893, Leskov compiled and published by A. S. Suvorin "Complete Works" in 12 volumes (republished in 1897 by A. F. Marx), which included mostly his works of art (moreover, in the first edition of the 6th volume was not passed by the censors).
In 1902-1903, A.F. Marx's printing house (as an appendix to the Niva magazine) published a 36-volume collected works, in which the editors also tried to collect the writer's journalistic heritage and which caused a wave of public interest in the writer's work.
After the 1917 revolution, Leskov was declared a "reactionary, bourgeois-minded writer", and his works in long years(the exception is the inclusion of 2 stories of the writer in the collection of 1927) were consigned to oblivion.
During the short Khrushchev thaw, Soviet readers finally got the opportunity to come into contact with Leskov's work again - in 1956-1958, an 11-volume collection of the writer's works was published, which, however, is not complete: for ideological reasons, the sharpest in tone was not included in it the anti-nihilistic novel "Knives", while journalism and letters are presented in a very limited volume (volumes 10-11).
During the years of stagnation, attempts were made to publish short collected works and separate volumes of Leskov's works, which did not cover the writer's areas of work related to religious and anti-nihilistic themes (the chronicle "Soboryane", the novel "Nowhere"), and which were supplied with extensive tendentious comments.
In 1989, the first collected works of Leskov - also in 12 volumes - were republished in the Ogonyok Library.
For the first time, a truly complete (30 volume) collected works of the writer began to be published by the publishing house "Terra" since 1996. In this edition, in addition to well-known works, it is planned to include all found, previously unpublished articles, stories and stories of the writer.
Nikolai Leskov - life and legacy
Personal life of Nikolai Leskov:
In 1853, Leskov married the daughter of a Kiev merchant, Olga Vasilievna Smirnova. In this marriage, a son Dmitry (died in infancy) and a daughter Vera were born.
Family life Leskova was unsuccessful: his wife Olga Vasilievna suffered from a mental illness and in 1878 was placed in the St. Nicholas Hospital in St. Petersburg, on the Pryazhka River. Her chief physician was the once well-known psychiatrist O. A. Chechott, and her trustee was the famous S. P. Botkin.
In 1865, Leskov entered into a civil marriage with the widow Ekaterina Bubnova (nee Savitskaya), in 1866 their son Andrei was born.
His son, Yuri Andreevich (1892-1942) became a diplomat, together with his wife, nee Baroness Medem, settled in France after the revolution. Their daughter, the only great-granddaughter of the writer, Tatyana Leskova (born 1922) is a ballerina and teacher who made a significant contribution to the formation and development of Brazilian ballet.
In 2001 and 2003, visiting Leskov's house-museum in Orel, she donated family heirlooms to his collection - a lyceum badge and lyceum rings of her father.
He was a supporter of vegetarianism.
Vegetarianism had an impact on the life and work of the writer, especially from the moment he met Leo Tolstoy in April 1887 in Moscow.
In 1889, the Novoye Vremya newspaper published a note by Leskov entitled “On Vegetarians, or Serious Patients and Meat-Pumpers,” in which the writer characterized those vegetarians who do not eat meat for “hygienic reasons”, and contrasted them with “compassionate people” - those who follows vegetarianism out of "their feeling of pity". The people respect only "compassionate people," Leskov wrote, "who do not eat meat food, not because they consider it unhealthy, but out of pity for the animals being killed.
The history of a vegetarian cookbook in Russia begins with N. S. Leskov's call to create such a book in Russian. This appeal of the writer was published in June 1892 in the Novoye Vremya newspaper under the title "On the need to publish in Russian a well-composed detailed kitchen book for vegetarians." Leskov argued the need to publish such a book by the “significant” and “constantly increasing” number of vegetarians in Russia, who, unfortunately, still do not have books with vegetarian recipes in their native language.
Leskov's appeal caused numerous mocking remarks in the Russian press, and the critic V.P. Burenin in one of his feuilletons created a parody of Leskov, calling him "the pious Abba." Responding to this kind of slander and attacks, Leskov writes that "absurdity" is not the flesh of animals "invented" long before Vl. Solovyov and L. N. Tolstoy, and refers not only to the “huge number” of unknown vegetarians, but also to names known to everyone, such as Zoroaster, Sakiya-Muni, Xenocrates, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Socrates, Epicurus, Plato, Seneca, Ovid, Juvenal, John Chrysostom, Byron, Lamartine and many others.
A year after Leskov's call, the first vegetarian cookbook in Russian was published in Russia.
The persecution and ridicule from the press did not intimidate Leskov: he continued to publish notes on vegetarianism and repeatedly referred to this phenomenon of the cultural life of Russia in his works.
Novels by Nikolai Leskov:
Nowhere (1864)
Bypassed (1865)
Islanders (1866)
On Knives (1870)
Cathedrals (1872)
Seedy kind (1874)
Devil's Dolls (1890)
The stories of Nikolai Leskov:
The Life of a Woman (1863)
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1864)
Warrior Girl (1866)
Old years in the village of Plodomasovo (1869)
Laughter and Sorrow (1871)
The Mysterious Man (1872)
The Sealed Angel (1872)
The Enchanted Wanderer (1873)
At the End of the World (1875)
Unbaptized pop (1877)
Lefty (1881)
Jewish somersault college (1882)
Pechersk antiques (1882)
Interesting Men (1885)
Mountain (1888)
Offended Neteta (1890)
Midnighters (1891)
Stories by Nikolai Leskov:
Musk Ox (1862)
Peacock (1874)
Iron Will (1876)
Shameless (1877)
Odnodum (1879)
Sheramour (1879)
Chertogon (1879)
Non-lethal Golovan (1880)
White Eagle (1880)
The Ghost in the Engineering Castle (1882)
Darner (1882)
Traveling with a Nihilist (1882)
The beast. Christmas story (1883)
Little Mistake (1883)
Toupee Artist (1883)
Selected Grain (1884)
Part-timers (1884)
Notes of an Unknown (1884)
Old Genius (1884)
Scarecrow (1885)
Vintage Psychopaths (1885)
Man on the Clock (1887)
Robbery (1887)
Buffoon Pamphalon (1887) (original title "God-pleasing buffoon" was not censored)
Waste Dances (1892)
Administrative Grace (1893)
Hare Remise (1894)
Plays by Nikolai Leskov:
Name: Nikolay Leskov
Age: 64 years old
Activity: Writer
Family status: was divorced
Nikolai Leskov: biography
Nikolai Leskov is called the ancestor of the Russian tale - in this regard, the writer stood on a par with. The author became famous as a publicist with a sharp pen that exposes the vices of society. And later he surprised his colleagues with his knowledge of the psychology, manners and customs of the people of his native country.
Childhood and youth
Leskov was born in the village of Gorohovo (Oryol province). The writer's father, Semyon Dmitrievich, came from an old spiritual family - his grandfather and father served as priests at a church in the village of Leski (hence the surname).
Yes, and the parent of the future writer himself graduated from the seminary, but then worked in the Oryol Criminal Chamber. He was distinguished by his great talent as an investigator, able to unravel even the most difficult case, for which he quickly rose through the ranks and received a title of nobility. Mother Maria Petrovna came from the Moscow nobility.
In the Leskov family, which settled in the administrative center of the province, five children grew up - two daughters and three sons, Nikolai was the eldest. When the boy was 8 years old, his father quarreled strongly with the authorities and, taking the family, retired to the village of Panino, where he took up agriculture- he plowed, sowed, looked after the garden.
Relations with young Kolya were disgusting. For five years the boy studied at the Oryol gymnasium, and in the end he had a certificate of completion of only two classes. Leskov's biographers blame the education system of those times for this, which repelled the desire to comprehend science with cramming and inertia. Especially in such extraordinary creative people like Kolya Leskov.
Nicholas had to go to work. The father placed the offspring in the criminal chamber as an employee, and a year later he died of cholera. At the same time, another grief struck the Leskov family - the house with all the property burned to the ground.
Young Nikolai went to get acquainted with the world. At his own request, the young man was transferred to the state chamber in Kyiv, where his uncle lived and taught at the university. In the Ukrainian capital, Leskov plunged into an interesting, eventful life - he became interested in languages, literature, philosophy, sat at a desk as a volunteer at the university, spun in the circles of sectarians and Old Believers.
The work of another uncle enriched the life experience of the future writer. The English husband of my mother's sister called his nephew to his company Schcott and Wilkens, the position involved long and frequent business trips throughout Russia. The writer called this time the best in his biography.
Literature
The idea to devote his life to the art of the word visited Leskov for a long time. For the first time, the young man thought about the career of a writer, traveling around the Russian expanses with assignments from the Schcott and Wilkens company - trips gave bright events and types of people who just asked to be written on paper.
Nikolai Semenovich made his first steps into literature as a publicist. He wrote articles "on the topic of the day" in St. Petersburg and Kiev newspapers, officials and police doctors were criticized for corruption. The success of the publications was grandiose, several official investigations were launched.
Test of the pen as an author works of art happened only at the age of 32 - Nikolai Leskov wrote the story "The Life of a Woman" (today we know it as "Cupid in Lapotochki"), which was received by readers of the Library for Reading magazine.
From the very first works, the writer was talked about as a master who can vividly convey female images with a tragic fate. And all because, after the first story, brilliant, heartfelt and complex essays “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” and “The Warrior” came out. Leskov skillfully wove individual humor and sarcasm into the presented dark side of life, demonstrating a unique style that was later recognized as a kind of tale.
The range of literary interests of Nikolai Semenovich included dramaturgy. Starting in 1867, the writer began to create plays for theaters. One of the popular ones is "Spender".
Leskov loudly declared himself and as a novelist. In the books "Nowhere", "Bypassed", "On Knives" he ridiculed revolutionaries and nihilists, declaring Russia's unpreparedness for radical changes. Such an assessment of the writer's work after reading the novel "On Knives" gave:
“... after the evil novel “On the Knives”, Leskov’s literary work immediately becomes a bright painting or, rather, icon painting, he begins to create an iconostasis of her saints and righteous for Russia.”
After the release of novels critical of the revolutionary democrats, the editors of the magazines staged a boycott of Leskov. Only Mikhail Katkov, head of the Russky Vestnik, did not refuse to cooperate with the writer, but it was impossible to work with this writer - he mercilessly corrected the manuscript.
The next work, included in the treasury of native literature, was the legend of the masters of weapons "Lefty". In it, Leskov's unique style shone with new facets, the author sprinkled with original neologisms, layered events on top of each other, creating a complex frame. They started talking about Nikolai Semenovich as a strong writer.
In the 70s, the writer was going through difficult times. The Ministry of Public Education appointed Leskov to the post of evaluator of new books - he decided whether publications could be passed to the reader or not, and received a meager salary for this. In addition, the next story "The Enchanted Wanderer" was rejected by all editors, including Katkov.
The writer conceived this work as an alternative to the traditional genre of the novel. The story united unrelated plots, and they are not finished. Critics smashed the "free form" to smithereens, and Nikolai Semenovich had to publish fragments of his offspring in a scattering of publications.
In the future, the author turned to the creation of idealized characters. From his pen came a collection of short stories "The Righteous", which included sketches "The Man on the Clock", "Figure" and others. The writer presented straightforward conscientious people, claiming that he met everyone at life path. However, critics and colleagues took the work with sarcasm. In the 80s, the righteous acquired religious features - Leskov wrote about the heroes of early Christianity.
At the end of his life, Nikolai Semenovich again turned to exposing officials, the military, representatives of the church, giving literature the works “The Beast”, “Dumb Artist”, “Scarecrow”. And it was at this time that Leskov wrote stories for children's reading, which were gladly accepted by magazine editors.
Among the geniuses of literature, who became famous later, there were loyal admirers of Nikolai Leskov. considered the nugget from the Oryol hinterland "the most Russian writer", and they elevated the man to the rank of their mentors.
Personal life
By the standards of the 19th century, the personal life of Nikolai Semenovich was unsuccessful. The writer managed to go down the aisle twice, and the second time when his first wife was alive.
Leskov married early, at 22. The chosen one was Olga Smirnova, heiress of the Kiev entrepreneur. In this marriage, a daughter, Vera, and a son, Mitya, were born, who died while still young. The wife suffered from a mental disorder and later was often treated at the St. Nicholas clinic in St. Petersburg.
Nikolai Semenovich, in fact, lost his wife and decided to enter into a civil marriage with Ekaterina Bubnova, who had been a widow for several years. In 1866, Leskov became a father for the third time - his son Andrei was born. Along this line, in 1922, the future ballet celebrity Tatyana Leskova, the great-granddaughter of the author of The Enchanted Wanderer, was born. But Nikolai Semenovich did not get along with his second wife either, after 11 years the couple separated.
Leskov was known as an ideological vegetarian, he believed that animals should not be killed for food. The man published an article in which he divided vegans into two camps - those who eat meat, observing a kind of fast, and those who pity innocent living beings. He referred himself to the latter. The writer called for the creation of a cookbook for Russian like-minded people, which would include "green" recipes from products available to Russians. And in 1893 such a publication appeared.
Death
Nikolai Leskov suffered from asthma all his life, in recent years the disease has worsened, asthma attacks have become more frequent.
On February 21 (March 5, according to a new style), 1895, the writer failed to cope with the aggravation of the disease. They buried Nikolai Semenovich in St. Petersburg at the Volkovskoye cemetery.
Bibliography
- 1863 - "The Life of a Woman"
- 1864 - "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"
- 1864 - "Nowhere"
- 1865 - "Bypassed"
- 1866 - "Islanders"
- 1866 - "Warrior"
- 1870 - "On knives"
- 1872 - "Cathedrals"
- 1872 - "The Sealed Angel"
- 1873 - "The Enchanted Wanderer"
- 1874 - "The Seedy Family"
- 1881 - "Lefty"
- 1890 - "Damn's Dolls"
He traveled a lot around Europe and examined local curiosities. Accompanied by his ataman Don Cossacks Platov, who did not like that the Sovereign was greedy for everything foreign. Of all the nations, the English especially tried to prove to Alexander that they were superior to the Russians. Here Platov decided: he will tell the whole truth to the monarch in the face, but he will not betray the Russian people!
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 2 - summary
Just the next day, the Sovereign and Platov went to the Kunstkamera - a large building with a statue of "Abolon polvederskogo" in the middle. The British began to show various military surprises: buremeters, merblues mantons, tar waterproof cables. Alexander marveled at all this, and Platov turned his face away and said that his Don people fought without all this and drove out the language for twelve.
In the end, the British showed the king a pistol of inimitable skill, which one of their admirals pulled out from the belt of a robber chieftain. Who made the pistol, they themselves did not know. But Platov rummaged through his large trousers, pulled out a screwdriver, turned it around - and took out the lock from the pistol. And on it was a Russian inscription: made by Ivan Moskvin in the city of Tula.
The English were terribly embarrassed.
The main characters of N. S. Leskov's tale "Lefty"
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 3 - summary
The next day, Alexander and Platov went to the new cabinets of curiosities. The English, having decided to wipe Platov's nose, brought a tray there to the Sovereign. It seemed to be empty, but in fact, a small, like a speck, mechanical flea lay on top. Through the "melkoskop" Alexander Pavlovich examined the key next to the flea. The flea had a hole in its belly. After seven turns of the key, the flea began to dance "Cavril" in it.
For this flea, the Sovereign immediately ordered the English masters to give a million and said to them: “You are the first masters in the whole world, and my people cannot do anything against you.”
On the way back to Russia with the tsar, Platov was more silent and only drank a leavened glass of vodka at each station, ate a salted lamb and smoked his pipe, which immediately included a whole pound of Zhukov's tobacco.
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 4 - summary
Alexander I soon died in Taganrog, and his brother Nikolai succeeded to the Russian throne. Soon he found among the things of Alexander a diamond nut, and in it - an outlandish metal flea. No one in the palace could say what it served for until Ataman Platov found out about this bewilderment. He appeared to the new Sovereign and told him what had happened in England.
The flea was brought in, and she went to jump. Platov said that this is a delicate work, but our Tula craftsmen will surely be able to surpass this product.
Nikolai Pavlovich differed from his brother in that he was very confident in his Russian people and did not like to yield to any foreigner. He instructed Platov to go to the Cossacks on the Don, and on the way to turn into Tula and show the English "nymphosoria" to the craftsmen there.
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 5 - summary
Platov arrived in Tula and showed the flea to the local gunsmiths. The Tulyaks said that the English nation is quite cunning, but it is possible to take on it with God's blessing. They advised the chieftain to go to the Don for the time being, and on the way back turn back to Tula, promising by that time something “worthy to present to the sovereign splendor”.
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 6 - summary
The flea remained with the three most skillful Tula gunsmiths - one of them was left-handed, with a birthmark on his cheek, and the hair on his temples was torn out during training. These gunsmiths, without saying anything to anyone, took their bags, put food in them and left somewhere out of the city. Others thought that the masters had boasted in front of Platov, and then they got cold feet and fled, taking away the diamond nut, which was a case for a flea. However, such an assumption was completely unfounded and unworthy of skillful people, on whom the hope of the nation now rested.
Leskov. Lefty. cartoon
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 7 - summary
Three masters went to the city of Mtsensk, Oryol province, to bow to the local icon of St. Nicholas. After serving a prayer service with her, the gunsmiths returned to Tula, locked themselves in Lefty's house and set to work in terrible secrecy.
All that could be heard from the house was the tapping of hammers. All the townspeople were curious about what was being done there, but the craftsmen did not deny any demand. They tried to get into them, pretending that they had come to ask for fire or salt, they even tried to scare them that the house next door was on fire. But Lefty just stuck his plucked head out of the window and shouted: "Burn yourself, but we have no time."
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 8 - summary
Ataman Platov was returning from the south in great haste. He rode to Tula and, without leaving the carriage, sent the Cossacks for the masters, who were supposed to shame the British.
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 9 - summary
Platov's Cossacks, having run to Levsha's house, began to knock, but they were not opened. They tore the bolts at the shutters, but they were very strong. Then the Cossacks took a log from the street, faked it under the roof in a fire-like manner - and immediately turned the entire roof off the house. And the craftsmen shouted from there that they were already hammering in the last carnation, and then they would immediately take out the work.
The Cossacks began to rush them. The Tulyaks sent the Cossacks to the ataman, and they themselves ran after them, fastening the hooks in their caftans as they went. The left-hander carried in his hand a royal box with an English steel flea.
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 10 - summary
Gunsmiths ran to Platov. He opened the box and saw: there was a flea lying there, just like it was. The ataman got angry and began to scold the Tula people. But they said: let him take their work to the Sovereign - he will see if he should be ashamed of his Russian people.
Platov was afraid that the masters had spoiled the flea. He shouted that he would take one of them scoundrels with him to Petersburg. He grabbed the ataman by the collar of the oblique Lefty, threw him at his feet in a carriage and rushed off with him, even without a “tugament” (document).
Immediately upon arrival, Platov put on orders and went to the king, and Lefty ordered the Cossacks to guard at the entrance to the palace.
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 11 - summary
Entering the palace, Platov put the box with the flea behind the stove and decided not to say anything about it to the Sovereign. But Nikolai Pavlovich did not forget about anything and asked Platov: what about the Tula masters? Did they justify themselves against the English nymphosoria?
Platov replied that the Tula people could not do anything. But the Sovereign did not believe this and ordered the box to be brought, saying: I know that my people cannot deceive me!
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 12 - summary
When the flea was wound with a key, she only moved her mustache, and she could not dance a square dance.
Platov even turned green with anger. He ran out into the entrance and began pulling Lefty by the hair, scolding him for ruining a rare thing. But Lefty said: he and his comrades did not spoil anything, but you need to look at a flea in the strongest small scope.
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 13 - summary
Lefty was taken to the Sovereign - exactly what he was in: one trouser leg is in a boot, the other is dangled, and the ozyamchik is old, the hooks do not fasten, and the collar is torn. The left-hander bowed, and Nikolai Pavlovich asked him what they had done with the flea in Tula. Lefty explained that with a flea it is necessary to examine under a small scope every heel that it steps on. The sovereign, as soon as he looked at the flea's heel, beamed all over - he took Lefty, what he was untidy and in the dust, unwashed, hugged him and kissed him, declaring to the courtiers:
– I knew that my Russians would not deceive me. Look: after all, they, rogues, have shod an English flea on horseshoes!
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 14 - summary
All the courtiers were amazed, and Lefty explained: if there had been a better smallscope, they would have seen that on each flea horseshoe the name is displayed: which Russian master made that horseshoe. Only the name of Lefty was not there, because he worked smaller: he forged carnations for horseshoes. The Sovereign asked how the Tula people did this work without a small scope. And Lefty said: due to poverty, we do not have a small scope, but we have already shot our eyes.
Ataman Platov asked Lefty for forgiveness for pulling his hair, and gave the gunsmith a hundred rubles. And Nikolai Pavlovich ordered the shod flea to be escorted back to England and sent along with a courier to Lefty, so that the British would know what kind of masters we have in Tula. They washed Lefty in the baths, dressed him in a caftan from a court chorister, and took him abroad.
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 15 - summary
The British examined the flea in the most powerful small scope - and right now in the "public" statements an enthusiastic "slander" was written about it. For three days, the British pumped Lefty with wine, and then they asked where he studied and how long did he know arithmetic?
The left-hander replied that he did not know arithmetic at all, and that all his science was according to the Psalter and the Half-Dream Book. In the sciences, he says, we have not gone wrong, but we are faithfully devoted to our fatherland.
Then they began to invite the Tula to stay in England, promising him to give him a great education. But Lefty did not want to accept their faith, saying: "Our books are thicker against yours, and our faith is fuller." The British promised to marry him and already wanted to make Lefty a "grandeve" with their maiden. But Lefty said that since he did not feel a detailed intention towards a foreign nation, then why fool the girls?
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 16 - summary
The British began to drive Lefty around their factories. He liked their economic arrangements very much: every worker is constantly full, dressed in a jacket, works not with a boilie, but with training. In front of everyone, a multiplication table hangs in plain sight, and he makes calculations on it.
But most of all Lefty looked at the old guns. He stuck his finger into their muzzle, drove along the walls there, sighed and was surprised that the Russian generals in England had never done this.
Then Lefty got bored and said that he wanted to go home. The British put him on a ship, and he went to the "Hardland" sea. For the autumn journey, Lefty was given in England a flannelette coat with a wind hood on his head. He sat on the deck in it, looked into the distance and kept asking: “Where is our Russia?”
On the ship, Lefty became friends with an English half-skipper. They began to drink vodka together and made a “English parey” (bet): if one drinks, then the other will certainly drink, and whoever drinks whom, that’s a hill.
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 17 - summary
They drank like this until the Riga Dinaminde - and reached the point that both of them saw how the devil was climbing out of the sea. Only the half-skipper saw a red-haired trait, and Lefty saw a dark one, like a negro. The half-skipper took Lefty on his back and carried him overboard to throw, saying: the devil will immediately give you back to me. They saw this on the ship, and the captain ordered them both to be locked down, but only they should not be served hot studing, because alcohol could catch fire in their insides.
They took them to St. Petersburg, then they laid them out on different wagons and took the Englishman to the messenger's house, and Lefty to the police station.
Illustration by N. Kuzmin to the tale of N. S. Leskov "Lefty"
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 18 - summary
A doctor and a pharmacist were immediately called to the Englishman in the embassy's house. They put him in a warm bath, gave him a gutta-percha pill, and then put him under a feather bed and a fur coat. The left-hander was thrown on the floor in the police station, searched, they took away the watch and money that the British had given, and then, uncovered in the cold, they took him to the hospital in a cab. But since he did not have a “tugament” (document), not a single hospital accepted him. Lefty was dragged until the morning along all the remote crooked paths - and finally taken to the common people's Obukhvinsk hospital, where everyone of an unknown class is accepted to die. They sat me down on the floor in the hallway.
And the next day the English half-skipper got up, as if nothing had happened, ate chicken with lynx (rice) and ran to look for his Russian comrade Levsha.
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 19 - summary
The half-skipper soon found Lefty. He was lying on the floor in the hallway. The Englishman ran to Count Kleinmichel and made a noise:
– Is it possible! Even though he has an Ovechkin fur coat, he still has the soul of a man.
The Englishman was immediately kicked out for talking about the human soul. They advised him to run to Ataman Platov, but he said that he had now received his resignation. The half-skipper finally managed to send Dr. Martyn-Solsky to Lefty. But when he arrived, Lefty was already ending, only saying in the end:
- Tell the sovereign that the British do not clean their guns with bricks: even if they don’t clean ours, otherwise, God forbid, they are not good for shooting.
And with this fidelity, Lefty crossed himself and died. The doctor conveyed his words to Count Chernyshev, but he said that he should not interfere in military affairs. The purge with bricks continued until the very Crimean campaign. And if the words of Lefty had been brought to the attention of the sovereign in due time, in the Crimea in the war there would have been a completely different turn.
Leskov "Lefty", chapter 20 - summary
Leskov concludes his story with the words that the folk myth of Lefty accurately and faithfully conveys the spirit of a bygone era. In the age of machines, such craftsmen disappeared even in Tula. However, the inspired artisan epic does not die - and, moreover, with a very "human soul".
Russian literature of the 19th century
Nikolay Semyonovich Leskov
Biography
1831 - 1895 Prose writer.
Born on February 4 (16 n.s.) in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol province, in the family of an official of the criminal chamber, who came from the clergy. Childhood years were spent in the estate of the Strakhovs' relatives, then in Orel. After his retirement, Leskov's father took up farming in the farm he acquired, Panin, Kromsky district. In the wilderness of Oryol, the future writer was able to see and learn a lot, which later gave him the right to say: “I did not study the people by talking with St. In 1841 - 1846 Leskov studied at the Oryol gymnasium, which he failed to graduate from: in the sixteenth year he lost his father, and the family's property was destroyed in a fire. Leskov joined the Orel Criminal Chamber of the Court, which gave him good material for future works. In 1849, with the support of his uncle, Kiev professor S. Alferyev, Leskov was transferred to Kyiv as an official of the Treasury. In the house of his uncle, his mother's brother, a professor of medicine, under the influence of progressive university professors, Leskov's keen interest in Herzen, in the great poet of Ukraine Taras Shevchenko, in Ukrainian culture, awakened, he became interested in ancient painting and architecture of Kyiv, later becoming an outstanding connoisseur of ancient Russian art. In 1857, Leskov retired and entered the private service of a large trading company, which was engaged in the resettlement of peasants to new lands and on whose business he traveled almost the entire European part of Russia. Start literary activity Leskova refers to 1860, when he first appeared as a progressive publicist. In January 1861 Leskov settled in St. Petersburg with the desire to devote himself to literary and journalistic activities. He began to publish in Otechestvennye Zapiski. Leskov came to Russian literature, having a large reserve of observations on Russian life, with sincere sympathy for the people's needs, which was reflected in his stories "Extinguished Business" (1862), "The Robber"; in the stories "The Life of a Woman" (1863), "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" (1865). In 1862, as a correspondent for the newspaper Severnaya Pchela, he visited Poland, Western Ukraine, and the Czech Republic. He wanted to get acquainted with the life, art and poetry of the Western Slavs, with whom he was very sympathetic. The trip ended with a visit to Paris. In the spring of 1863 Leskov returned to Russia. Knowing well the province, its needs, human characters, details of everyday life and deep ideological currents, Leskov did not accept the calculations of "theoreticians" cut off from Russian roots. He talks about this in the story "The Musk Ox" (1863), in the novels "Nowhere" (1864), "The Bypassed" (1865), "On the Knives" (1870). They outline the theme of Russia's unpreparedness for the revolution and tragic fate people who connected their lives with the hope of its speedy realization. Hence the disagreement with the revolutionary democrats. In 1870 - 1880 Leskov overestimated a lot; acquaintance with Tolstoy has a great influence on him. National-historical issues appeared in his work: the novel "Cathedrals" (1872), "The Seedy Family" (1874). During these years he wrote several stories about artists: "The Islanders", "The Sealed Angel". The talent of a Russian person, the kindness and generosity of his soul have always admired Leskov, and this theme found its expression in the stories “Lefty (The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea)” (1881), “Dumb Artist” (1883), “The Man on the hours" (1887). Satire, humor and irony occupy a large place in Leskov's legacy: "Selective Grain", "Shameless", "Empty Dances", etc. The story "Hare Remise" was the last major work of the writer. Leskov died in St. Petersburg.
Nikolai Leskov was born in the village of Gorokhov, Oryol province, on February 4 (16 n.s.), 1831. He was the son of an official of the criminal chamber. Nikolai grew up on the estates of the Strakhovs, then in Orel. The father retires from the chambers and buys the Panin farm in the Kromsky district, where he begins to engage in agriculture. In 1841 - 1846, the young man studied at the Oryol gymnasium, but due to the death of his father and a fire on the farm, Nikolai could not finish it. The young man goes to serve in the Oryol criminal chamber of the court. In 1849 he was transferred to Kyiv as an official of the state chamber at the request of his uncle S. Alferyev. In his uncle's house, the writer develops an interest in Taras Shevchenko and Ukrainian literature. In 1857, Leskov, having retired, gets a job in a large trading company that is engaged in the resettlement of peasants.
In 1860 Leskov acts as a progressive publicist, which gives rise to his activities. In January 1861, Nikolai moved to St. Petersburg and began publishing in Otechestvennye Zapiski. Observing the hard life of the people, the author gives birth to the stories “Extinguished Business” (1862), “The Robber”, the novella “The Life of a Woman” (1863), “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” (1865). In 1862 he visited Poland, western Ukraine, Czech Republic, working as a correspondent for the newspaper "Northern Bee". At the end of the trip he visited Paris. In the spring of 1863 Leskov returned to Russia. Nikolai diligently took up writing, and after a while the world saw the story "The Musk Ox" (1863), the novels "Nowhere" (1864), "Bypassed" (1865), "On Knives" (1870). In 1870 - 1880 Leskov rethinks everything; communication with Tolstoy strongly influences him, as a result of which national-historical problems emerge: the novel "Soboryane" (1872), "The Seedy Family" (1874). Over the years, stories about artists have also been written: "The Islanders", "The Sealed Angel". Admiration for the Russian man, his qualities (kindness, generosity) and soul, inspired the poet to write the stories "Lefty (The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea)" (1881), "Dumb Artist" (1883), "The Man on the Clock" ( 1887). Leskov left behind a lot satirical works, humor and irony: “Selective Grain”, “Shameless”, “Waste Dances”, etc. The final major masterpiece of the author was the story “Hare Remise”.